John O'Brien News

PHILADELPHIA - Pennsylvania will be the next battleground in historically hard-fought litigation over lead paint, as private lawyers seeking one-third of possible multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements are teaming with county officials on lawsuits.

More than 30 lawsuits blame Armstrong World Industries, once Lancaster’s largest employer, for exposing workers to chemicals that led to sickness, suffering and death. But they’ve been pursued by a lawyer who, a judge says, “made a mockery of the law” and whose clients are paying, figuratively and literally, for his actions.

The fight for control of Pennsylvania’s opioid litigation is not over, as Lehigh County is not happy that its case has been grouped in with more than 30 others and that lawyers it previously rejected have been tasked with overseeing the proceedings.

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Since last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that dealt a blow to forum-shopping personal injury attorneys, companies threatened with sprawling, 50-state litigation have not been forced into defending cases all over the country.

PHILADELPHIA – A Texas personal injury law firm claims it is owed part of $16 million awarded to a corporate whistleblower because colleagues effectively poached the client and represented him in secret.

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – State attorneys general are united in championing a new cause – abolishing clauses that require sexual harassment claims to be heard in arbitration. But would it set a bad precedent for changing federal law while scoring political points for its supporters?

NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – Companies that fund lawsuits can find themselves in the crosshairs of state regulators, and a recent New York Post article revealed that one such business has given tens of thousands of dollars to one of the nation’s most important public officials – who happens to have sued a competing company.

PITTSBURGH – The way his former firm sees it, prominent Western Pennsylvania plaintiffs attorney R. Bruce Carlson has essentially been working for it for the past 13 years as he litigated a long-running class action – even though he resigned in 2004.

WASHINGTON - As courts are asked to provide guidance on the future of a federal telemarketing law that was written before the cell phone era, a House subcommittee is hearing suggestions on how to modernize it.

HARRISBURG – Hoping to drum up support for a bill that seeks to reform the way asbestos lawsuits proceed, Rep. Warren Kampf spoke May 9 to a crowd of fellow lawmakers about what he feels is an ongoing fraud in the legal system.

In June 2014, Melody Stoops began a business venture that would lead to the collection
of at least 35 cell phones that she stored in a shoebox. Though she lived in a small town in central Pennsylvania, she used Florida area codes when she registered for a new phone number for each.

CHICAGO - A company that frequently finds itself targeted by asbestos attorneys is taking the reins on racketeering claims that allege those lawyers manipulated the system to unfairly drive up the costs of settlements and verdicts.

When all the cash was spent, the victors were Philadelphia judge Kevin Dougherty and Superior Court judges David Wecht and Christine Donohue. Contributions to seven candidates topped $11 million, and even more was spent by political action committees on advertising.